Benoit Jeannet
Untitled, 2019
Archive photographs from the National Archive & Records Administration and Life Magazine, December 1951, inkjet prints, 40 × 50 cm / 15,7× 19,7 in, unique piece
© Benoît Jeannet / Courtesy Galerie Eric Mouchet
Eyewitnesses of the noiseless flash, 2019
Hawaiian shirts and epoxy resin, variable dimensions, unique pieces
© Benoît Jeannet / Courtesy Galerie Eric Mouchet
Born in 1981
Lives and works in Neuch.tel, Switzerland
Escape From Paradise
Benoît Jeannet sees his work as a polymorphic approach to photography.
He diverts original applications by using an experimental approach to the photographic act. He considers his darkroom and photography as a malleable tool, mixing media and building a specific visual language to express the movements of the world he bears witness to.
Benoît Jeannet is presenting the Escape from Paradise series at a pp roche, a research project in which the Pacific is transformed into an iconography observation lab. Escape from Paradise is a study of Hawaiian iconography and myths. In the photographer’s studio, the island became an observation lab, a microcosm of 20th century history: the Dole Food Company’s plantations, the history of the Hawaiian shirt, the 1944 Chicago Convention, the invention of the atom bomb and the advent of the Internet, among others, have shaped our mental perception of Hawaii.
These popular imagery components act as a form of diluted propaganda object. The series combines contemporary artifacts to form an installation, as a sort of visual archaeology of the future.
Benoît Jeannet graduated from Vevey Photography School (2012) and then from the ECAL University of Art and Design in Lausanne (2015) and holds a master’s degree in visual arts from HEAD Geneva University of Art and Design (2019). He was awarded the Broncolor Light Award at Vevey’s Festival Images in 2019 for his series Escape from Paradise. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad, including at the Festival Images, Vevey, Jimei × Arles Photo festival, Jimei (China), Foam Museum, Amsterdam and the Rencontres de la photographie, Arles.
Galerie Eric Mouchet
Eric Mouchet has been an art dealer and collector for more than 20 years and opened a gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 2014 dedicated to contemporary art and emerging artists. The gallery also produces exhibitions and books on modern art and established artists such as Le Corbusier, Eiko Hosoe, Hudinilson Jr. and Robert Mapplethorpe. These two facets form the foundations of the gallery’s philosophy and are an integral part of their identity. This enables the gallery to consider and assist emerging artists and their work.
Galerie Eric Mouchet, 45 rue Jacob — 75006 Paris, France
